Employer-sponsored health insurance is the cornerstone of the American healthcare system—and it’s screwing everyone over.

Consider for a moment why almost half of the country gets their health coverage through their employer. We don’t receive food, clothing, or housing from our employer. And those factors probably have a greatereffect on health outcomes than insurance. What makes health insurance different?

Over the past two weeks the politics of the center-left have come back into focus. First with the release of the new media platform, Verrit, followed quickly thereafter with the leaked excerpts of Hillary Clinton’s new book, What Happened.

Each of these events on their own are one-off stories of a disgruntled member of the political class, yet together they form a fuller picture of an unsure Democratic party clinging to a message that failed to resonate with voters.Continue reading “The Lost Left”→

Roots of Chinese Strategic Doctrine and Statecraft

Near the end of 2015, General Secretary Xi Jinping (习近平) announced a shift in the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA-中国人民解放军）strategic doctrine, orienting the Chinese military toward achieving long term modernization goals. The Central Military Commission (CMC) has since restructured military organization within the services, command and control doctrine, and instituted new definitions of regional security theaters. Moreover, improvements in logistical connectivity, weapons systems, and quality of leadership will allow China greater joint operational capability, making possible more poignant regional power projection. As the latest Department of Defense China Military Power Report underscores, new reforms have been implemented to improve the PLA’s “ability to fight short-duration, high-intensity regional conflicts at greater distances from the Chinese mainland and strengthen the Chinese Communist Party’s control over the military.”Continue reading “An American 圍棋: The New and Old Order of Things”→

PBS recounted a story in early of July of a four year old, who unable to pay for her breakfast, had her lunch dumped in the trash. The teaching assistant who witnessed the incident said “She did not protest, other than to walk away in tears.”

Known as ‘lunch shaming,’ throwing away a meal, or otherwise penalizing a student for their inability to pay for it is not unusual. According to the USDA, about half of all school districts shame their students if they cannot afford their breakfast or lunch. And the reasoning often falls outside budgetary concerns, instead falling within a school administration’s desire to teach kids and parents responsibility. As one commenter on a story outlining a similar lunch shaming incident wrote “Personal responsibility is important for these kids to learn.” Continue reading “The Contradiction of Personal Responsibility”→

Once the location of brutal warfare, the Pacific Command (USPACOM) region is at a point of relative peace. On June 23, American and Japanese service members gathered to pay their respects to lives lost at the Battle of Okinawa seventy-two years ago. As the region enjoys relative stability, it is a time to reflect on fundamental questions concerning America’s notion of “national interest,” the structuring the international order, and the changing role of the US military in East Asia. These questions are necessary if we want to avoid more tragedy and bloodshed like that which occurred during the island hopping campaign in World War II.Continue reading “Semiotic Implications of Battle: U.S. Concepts of War and Interest in an Uncertain International Order”→

On Thursday, June 22nd, Senate Republicans released their version of the American Health Care Act (AHCA). In terms of popularity, not much has changed since the House released their version of the bill. Very few Americans like it.

In the economic world, it is all too easy to assume “the dismal science” operates just as any other science. As the header of this blog reminds us, every action should have a predictable outcome. Economics, however, is the study of human action, and humans are not so predictable.Continue reading “The Economics of Expectations”→

Since the fall of the USSR in 1991, the foreign policy establishment has called upon the United States to lead from the front. Foreign policy experts preached that the United States could not take its ball and go home like it did after the First World War. The international community needed aleader. This train of thought in foreign policy has been predominate for the last 20 years. As a result, the U.S. has become the world’s policeman, acting on moral indignation instead of the best interest of the U.S. Continue reading “The Case for a More Restrained Foreign Policy”→